By Manoj Kumar Ojha
Guwahati: Amid the death of a wild adult male elephant died due to electrocution after coming in contact with high voltage electric wire at Khamanpathar village under Margherita sub-division in Tinsukia on Tuesday; environmentalists have appealed government to stop illegal wild elephant trade from the state.
“I have been investigating the illegal trade of elephants since 2012 and I have been fighting to stop the illegal trade of elephants. I am very sad to say that the illegal elephant trade continues for many years today. We have been speaking out against this illegal trade since 2012 but the government of Assam or India has not cooperated with us in this regard,” Devajit Moran, a Wildlife worker told OurIndia on Wednesday.
Moran added, “There are many people involved in the elephant trade from the bottom up which is why everyone is silent. The important thing is that the people who owned elephants in the old days are used in the elephant trade. Since the elephant owners keep the elephants in the forest for food, the elephant mouths keep tracking where the elephants have given birth , whenever the elephant gives birth, they put the calf between the domestic herd and the herd from the wild elephant Whenever people ask the owner of the elephant about the calf, the owner of the elephant says that our elephant has given birth,”.
“These elephant calves are caught but the elephant mafia bears all the lakhs of rupees spent to train the elephant . When the elephant is trained, these elephants are ready for sale. Currently, we are fighting against the illegal trade of these elephants in Assam and they do not want to sell them from Assam .
There are many reasons why we have been fighting against illegal elephants in Assam. My words are like a movie story about the elephant trade. They are not able to sell the elephants to Assam. Therefore, the mafia has paid all the people of the forest department and managed to go to Arunachal Pradesh neighboring Assam state and make all the illegal documents and sell the elephants as Arunachal elephants. The 20 elephants have been taken to the Radha Krishna temple in Gujarat,” he said.
He said, “From my 10 years of experience, when I investigated why these elephants were taken to Gujarat in April or May of the year, I found out that these stray elephants were taken by the Ambani family and donated to the temple. It is very sad that these peaceful elephants are being captured from the forests of Assam and kept in temples. Why should these elephants be punished , let the wildlife live in peace in nature,”.
“We are requesting the Government of India and the Government of Assam to stop the illegal elephant trade as soon as possible , we humbly request all nature lovers, nature workers all over India and all over the world to speak out against this illegal elephant trade. I have been investigating the illegal trade of elephants since 2012 and I have been fighting to stop the illegal trade of elephants. I want to share as much as I can from my experience of ten or eleven years. Surely you can understand what I am saying.” Moran concluded.
According to locals, the elephant which died due to electrocution had come out in search of food from the forest.
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